Wild Kratts: Power of Nature - Episode 20 - To Catch a Shadow
by Taismo-89
Summary: Mina gets lost in the forest while the brothers visit their spider-monkey buddies, and ends up found by an old friend of her siblings. But Donita is after this friend of them as well... Collab with Tamishii aka Soul Rider. Small tribute to Hayao Miyazaki hinted!


"Martin! Chris!" Mina called in worry as she wandered through the thick jungle. "Aviva! Grabsy! Anybody!" Nothing replied. "Ooooh, why did that harpy eagle have to carry me off?"

Sitting on a rock to rest, Mina remembered of how she ended up in that situation.

* * *

_The Tortuga landed in the Central American forest._

_"Nothing like a normal Creature Adventure," Martin commented._

_"You said it, bro. Not that the previous adventures weren't good, but we really need some normal life sometimes," Chris said._

_Mina yawned. She was ready to meet her brothers' spider-monkey buddies. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had her pink CPS on so she could use some creature powers. "I'm ready," she called. _

_But deep within her, a big doubt about her utility on the team was bothering her. Her powers were not that strong as their sibings' powers. And when she wasn't out there helping her brothers, she was just sitting in the Tortuga, doing nothing at all._

_"All right," Chris said, interrupting Mina's thoughts. "Let's get going!"_

_"Look! There's Grabsy!" Martin pointed out in the trees._

_A little spider monkey swung down from his branch and landed on Mina's shoulder._

"Awe, he's so cute," the nymph commented. Grabsy then grabbed her ponytail and started playing with it. "Hey, what are you doing?" Her brothers chuckled.

"He wants to give you a baby spider monkey hairdo," Chris explained. "He always gives Martin one."

"Speaking of which, I'm after Mina," the blonde proclaimed. This made both his little siblings laugh.

_"The Bugs or Monkeys adventure in the Wild Kratts diary is another one of my favorites. What first became a doubt and kind of an argument, turned out becoming one amazing adventure, with a brand new Creature Power Suit," Martin said, while Grabsy turned to him. __He had just finished the hybrid's hair and jumped to the eldest sibling's shoulders. The little primate then began Martin's hair makeover. Both brothers looked at their little sister. "Awwe, you look so cute."_

_"That hairstyle's really you, Mina," Chris complimented. _

_Mina looked at her hair and giggled a little. "It is... pretty wild," she replied._

_Mina chuckled as she saw Martin's hair. "Oh my, bro! You look hilarious!"_

_"Hey! I actually like this!" Suddenly, they heard a squawk. Looking up, the Kratts and monkey saw the flying rain forest predator. "Look out! Harpy eagle!" Grabsy made a leap to the thickness of the trees. But the raptor wasn't even after him. Mina's size and hair made her look like a small spider monkey. With its strong talons, the eagle plucked her off the ground, making her scream in terror. The Kratt Brothers gasped in horror._

_"Mina!" they screamed._

_"Help!" the little girl shrieked. The raptor flew off with the bros trying to keep up. Unfortunately, they tripped over some exposed roots and instantly lost sight of them. _

_"Lemme go! I'm not a spider-monkey!" She moved continuously to get free._

_It wasn't until it look down that it realized its mistake. At ten feet from the ground, the eagle let her go. She didn't have enough time to levitate and landed on the leafy rain forest floor._

* * *

"Ooooh, I only wish I could get back home," Mina complained. "They must be worried sick."

Suddenly, she picked up some rustling coming from the bushes. The nymph tensed, ready to dash in the other direction if need be. What came out made her relax and even stare like a little kid who found a toy they like. It was a little black cat cub. A little black JAGUAR cub to be exact. Well, he looked a little more grown up, but she recognized him from somewhere.

"Um... hi," she said, standing up, until she knelt, feeling pain in her arm and knee. Although she held onto some branches to land safely, and fell in the mud, her arm and her right knee were wounded.

The black jaguar slowly approached her. "Hello. Who are you?" he asked, as Mina started using her animal understanding power.

"My name's Mina. I was carried off by a harpy eagle and now I'm injured." The jaguar came up to her and began to sniff her. He looked up at her when he was done.

"You smell familiar. And your... coat looks familiar." She knew he was talking about her CPS. "You wouldn't happen to know two grown hairless apes in green and blue, would you?"

Mina tried to hold in a snort of laughter with her hand. "Those 'two grown hairless apes' were probably my brothers. So you know them?"

"Yes. They saved me from this weird, bald ape. Not that I felt threatened." The nymph found it harder to hold in her laughs. He was probably talking about Zach. "I see. Did they name you anything?"

"Actually, they did. I was only a few weeks old when I met them and they named me. They called me Shadow. And I really like it. So did mom."

"Oh, now I recognize you. They wrote about you on the Wild Kratts diary." Mina remembered. She was about to pick her Creaturepod, until she noticed it was broken. And her CPS' button was jammed from the fall. It wouldn't work.

"Well... I can't find a way to communicate with them now," Mina said, tears started falling from her eyes. "I'm scared. I wanna go home. I want my brothers..."

She started sobbing silently, and Shadow licked her tears. "Hey, calm down. Don't worry. I'll help you find them. Hop on." He offered her a ride.

Mina smiled and climbed onto his back. He was pretty strong for a teenage cub. Knowing that she was on, he sprinted into the jungle.

* * *

"Dabio!" Donita called with an annoyed tone. Her henchman came running into the room.

"Here Donita." he responded.

"I'm so out of ideas for my coat collection. It just feels like I have drawed every single animal that would make a good coat, but none of them satisfyied me!" She threw her sketches away, grunting.

One scrap of paper hit a geographic magazine. It fell off the jet's table to and opened to a random page. Dabio picked it up and looked at the article.

"Ooooo, pretty kitties." The fashion designer caught a glimpse of it and went wide eyed.

"Give me that, Dabio!" She swiftly snatched it out of his hands. On the page was a map of Central America and next to it were two pictures of jaguars. One was a normal jaguar, but the other was black. Her eyes sparkled. "That's it! Jaguar coats! Editions in gold and black! Oh, absolutely gorgeous!" Donita stood up. "Prepare the jet, Dabio. We are going to Central America."

* * *

Shadow arrived at his cave with Mina feeling a little sleepy.

"I spent a long time searching for my brothers around the forest. I guees I need to sleep for a bit."

"I don't mind you resting here. Besides, I don't think you'll be getting anywhere with those injuries." He helped her lay down at the far side of the den. "I think I'll stay with you for a while, then go looking for your brothers." Mina smiled with her eyes drooping as he laid down beside her.

"Thank you Shadow," she murmured sleepily before passing out. Shadow let himself fall asleep too as the little nymph snuggled close to him.

* * *

"Mina! Mina!" the Kratt Brothers called.

"We've been searching for hours!" Martin complained. "Where is she?"

"That harpy eagle could've taken her anywhere!" Chris replied. "If it found that she wasn't a spider monkey after all, it probably let her go."

"But where?"

"Martin, look! Over there!" The two rushed over to a spot on the forest floor. There were broken branches littering the ground and it looked like the mud was disturbed by something big. Big as a baby spider monkey.

"Mina was here!" the Kratt in blue proclaimed.

"And she wasn't alone for long. Look." The brunette pointed to something close by. "Footprints. Cat footprints."

"A jaguar?"

"May be. You don't think it ran off with Mina, do you?"

"Let's hope it's not one that wants to eat her." They followed the trail of tracks.

"Tortuga! We need backup! This is officially a search mission," Martin warned through his Creaturepod.

"Sorry, guys. I'm still working on the damage that girl Chris defeated caused," Koki warned.

"*yawns* Sorry. Got me in my nap time," Jimmy warned.

"Another nap?" Bite-Size asked. "Doesn't he even get tired of... getting tired?"

"*giggle* I don't think so, Bites. I guess it's just you and me available," Aviva said, picking up her M.I.K. and climbing on her buzz bike. "Hasta luego, guys!" She left the Tortuga with the brown bat following her.

* * *

_"Flora, did you ever like someone?" a younger Mina with all white hair asked her sister. Flora blushed._

_"Ah-what would you make you ask that?" she questioned in a bit of embarrassment._

_"From watching these two birds that once flew by. One liked the other and vice versa. And I wanted to know if you were once like that." The older hybrid smiled sadly._

_"... There was one that I liked. But he lived a short life and it was so many millenniums ago. He was an apprentice of Mother, a very young one. He didn't care that I wasn't all nymph. He treated me like a friend. And... I just started to want us to be more than friends."_

_"Was he a brownie fairy?" Flora giggled half-heartedly._

_"No. He was a human. A mortal." Mina stared right at her with wide eyes._

_"A human?"_

_"I didn't care if he were a human, merman, pixie, or any other creature. I felt that he was the one for me. And Aunt Aphrodite even proved it. And then, there were these events that happened that... made it impossible for us to be together. And then he was..." She frowned deeply as tears fell. "I never told him how I felt. And now, he's gone."_

_Suddenly, a small breeze entered the temple. When the sisters felt it, they also heard the faint laugh of a baby. Flora's eyes widened and she smiled happily, the tears stopping. "He's back."_

_"Who's back? Him?"_

_"It has to be."_

_"What was his name? I never got his name."_

_"... Terrance. But everyone called him Terra."_

* * *

Mina awoke from her dream. She had that talk with her sister many years ago. But why she remembered that, she didn't understand.

She looked at the outside of the cave and saw Shadow had returned.

"Any luck?" She asked.

"I did not see any others while on patrol," the jaguar informed. "But knowing them, they might come this way." Suddenly, the trees started to shake. "Something's coming. Quick, get inside." He pushed the little girl back into the den. They sat in the back in silence. The noise came closer and closer. Abruptly, it stopped. But they didn't dare to move.

"Shadow? You there buddy?" A familiar voice called. Both their eyes glittered in relief.

"Martin?" Mina said.

"Mina?" Two grown men entered the cave. They were the Kratt Brothers. The four smiled big.

"Mina!" both bros exclaimed.

"Chris! Martin!" the nymph replied. She crawled over to them due to the limited space in the back and embraced them. "Oh, thank Athena you found me!"

"Wow. You look awful. What happened?" Martin asked.

"This was the harpy eagle, this was the fall, and i'm all covered in mud." She pointed to each of her bruises. "But Shadow helped me. It was nice of him."

"It's nice to see you two again," the jaguar teen greeted them. The two activated their medallions.

"Wow Shadow, you sure got big since last time we saw you,". Chris complimented. Martin stroked the teenage cub's head.

"How's it going Shadow?"

"Pretty fine actually. After mom moved out, I've learned to hunt... and pounce." With that, he jumped and tackled the blonde to the ground. Both little siblings and eldest laughed.

"Hello, Shadow," Aviva said when she saw his face. Her medallion was on.

"Oh, you're the older girl. It's nice to see you too." Shadow stepped out of the cave, followed by the Kratts. Mina had several bandages on her arms and legs and the mud was wiped off.

"Mina! What happened to you?"

"It's a long story," she responded.

"Just take it easy for a while, okay Mina?" Martin told her.

"Okay."

Suddenly, Martin's sprigs started twitching. He looked up and gasped.

"Look out!" he yelled before pushing Mina and Shadow out of the way. A pink box connected to a tube fell on him and Chris. Two lumps in the tube went up until the Kratt Brothers were discarded into a glass cylinder.

"Donita!" the girls exclaimed, recognizing the jet. Donita opened the door to examine her catch. She growled when she saw two of her enemies instead of a jaguar.

"You Wild Kratts just had to get in the way," she complained. Then the fashionista smirked. "Oh well, at least I have two new, cute models to try out my jaguar coats." She leaned forward with her evil look, making the bros back up against the glass walls, holding each other in fear of her forcing them to wear her fashion line.

"Donita Dumbata, let my brothers go!" Mina shouted. "And what was about jaguar coats?"

"I was trying to catch that gorgeous black one, but two Kratt Brothers will do. But don't think I won't return for that one." She disappeared inside her jet.

"Aviva! Get Mina back to the Tortuga! She needs more medical attention," Chris ordered.

"But what about you guys?" Mina asked.

"We'll find a way out, Mina!" Martin shouted as the tube was lift up to the plane.

"NO!" Mina shouted desperately. Then, she flinched in pain. Donita's plan took off.

"Let's go to the Tortuga ahora!" Aviva said, holding Mina in her arms and being followed by Shadow and Bite-Size.

"Please protect them Aunt Athena," the nymph prayed. She knew her aunt was not near, but she knew she was a thing from the heavens.

* * *

"Oh yes, the gold one really compliments your eyes and hair, Chris-Angelo," Donita commented Chris, who was under the control of a pose beam and forced to wear a gold jaguar coat. Martin was stuck under a pose beam too, but didn't have one on. Yet. At least she didn't change their clothes. They glared at her.

"You better let these jaguars go, Donita!" Chris threatened. He was forced to pose with a hand on his hip, upper body turned to his left and a hand on his cheek.

"And us too!" Martin added. He was in the same pose as in Flight of the Draco.

"Not a chance, Martino. You and Chris-Angelo are going to be my top models for the premiere of my rain forest collection. And I have almost every jaguar in this part of the forest ready to be sold." She came over to Martin and inspected him. "Hmmm... Dabio, bring me one of the jaguar coats."

"Here Donita," Dabio said, handing her a suspended wildcat. Donita held it in front of Martin.

"No, it doesn't compliment your perfect blonde hair or blue eyes. Something must make them stand out..." An idea came, making her smile. "A black jaguar coat. Now that's more like it. And that black jaguar cub is just the right size for you. Dabio, find it." As she left, both brothers looked at each other worriedly.

* * *

The Tortuga team was reunited, really worried about the brothers. Mina waited impatiently for Koki to finish cleaning her wounds.

"Stop moving, sweetie," She said.

"I'm worried, Koki. My brothers are being held prisoners by Lady Crazy-Clothes, and I'm just sitting here, being useless."

"Hey, I know how you feel, girl," Bite-Size commented.

"You do?"

"Yeah, I also feel useless sometimes when the team is on Creature Adventures. I used to think, 'I'm just here eating bugs when I could be out there helping.'"

"Oh yeah, and that was a reason why you wanted to be human."

"Yeah, but now I see that I'm helpful in any form. I knew that they will need me when they need me."

Mina smiled. "Thanks, Bite-Size."

"Okay, that's the last one," Koki informed, having the last bandage on.

"Thanks Koki."

Suddenly, the HQ alarm went off. Koki rushed to the monitor and hit a few buttons.

"It's... it's Donita! She's heading this way!"

"She must be after Shadow!" Aviva said. "We can't let her catch him! She might have already catched many creatures!" She took out a sores driver and two jaguar Power Disks. After fixing Mina's CPS button, she held a disk close to her face. "Feel like going on a Kratt Brother Rescue?"

"Hmm... yeah... but I think I have a better idea." Mina looked over a paper mask she made in her spare time.

* * *

*BG music: Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride) - Don Felder*

Aviva and Koki put on their CPS while Mina painted red stripes on her face.

Once the nymph put on her black jaguar mask, she climbed on Shadow's back and all the girls left, while Bite-Size observed.

"Good luck, girls."

* * *

Everything was set. The Kratt brothers were just frozen in position with Chris near the curtain, wearing the jaguar coat. Martin was nearby to the side. He wasn't wearing any jaguar, much to his relief.

"This is terrible! I don't have any plans," Chris said.

"Me neither, bro. And crom looking out the window, there are people gathering around very quickly. Even Zach," Martin observed from the window.

"And even worse, he's going to see me in THIS," he spat the last word in disgust. He was wearing a black and white, long sleeved turtleneck. On his hands were brown fashion gloves. He had on black skinny jeans with a loose, diamond studded belt. His safari boots were replaced with brown leather boots.

"Oh yeah. That belt is definitely not you, bro. And neither is the jaguar."

While people from all over the place reunited, Mina and the girls observed from behind some bushes.

"The show's starting now." Koki warned.

"Wow, where you get this idea, Mina?" Aviva asked.

"A Japanese animation movie I saw with Jimmy, about a girl raised by wolves," Mina said, putting her mask on. Then, she looked behind, just to be sure their "army" was ready.

Donita came up on the end of the walkway. "Ladies and gentlemen, I, Donita Donata, present to you the premiere of my rain forest collection: the jaguar coat, gold and black editions," she announced and gestured with a hand to the curtain.

The curtain pulled aside to reveal Chris with his back to the audience. One hand on his waist, cocked to the matching hand and the other hand out in a posing position. The pose beam made him turn around with a flirty look on his face. Inside though, he was absolutely terrified. The people cheered and he actually saw one or two girls faint. He began walking down the walkway. Zach, who was standing nearby, went wide eyed.

"The Ratt Bratt?" he protested angrily, not that anyone heard him. From the bushes, the girls' eyes went wide as well.

"Yikes, now that's cold," Aviva commented.

"Yeah. Making my bro wear that belt and a jaguar? With THAT outfit?" Mina added.

"Definitely NOT in Chris's fashion line," Koki finished, chuckling.

"Okay. Guys, on my signal."

Chris stopped in the center of the stage. Mina whistled the Wild Kratts theme.

"ATTACK!" Aviva shouted.

*BG music: Heavy Metal - Sammy Hagar*

Springing out of the bushes were all sorts of rain forest creatures. All the way from hummingbirds and spider-monkeys to harpy eagles and jaguars. In front were Aviva and Koki in their jaguar suits and Mina riding on Shadow's back with her mask on.

Chris's stared with a surprised expression and Martin could see the attack from the window. The audience began to panic and they ran away. Even Zach was scared off by spider monkeys. A harpy eagle came down on the pose beam controlling Chris and crushed it with its talons.

"I'm free!" he proclaimed. Even the jaguar he had on jumped off and ran into the forest. He jumped down from the stage and managed to find a good sized rock.

"And now for Martin!" With a hood aimed shot, he broke the pose beam on his brother. Martin rushed out from backstage.

"Nice shot, Chris!" he complimented. "And let's not forget the other wildcats!" In his hand was a remote with a single button. With a single push of the button, the jaguars hanging on a rack nearby sprung off. Donita growled in frustration.

"Stupid cat Kratts!" she complained before escaping to her jet. "Always ruining my show with those wild animals!" In a few seconds, she was out of there. The bros turned to Mina with huge smiles.

"Awesome job Mina!" Chris said to her.

"Now that was a show!" Martin added.

"Thanks bros," Mina replied. "And thank you everyone for helping us." The animals did their special calls before disappearing into their home. The only creature that hung around was Shadow.

"Oh, and Chris, you might want to remove the belt."

Martin tried holding in his laughs along with Aviva and Koki. Chris narrowed his eyes at the adults.

"Yeah, I like your mask more anyway."

"Well, thank you Chris."

"That Japanese flick, huh?"

"Precisely." She got off her cat-steed. Shadow have her a lick, leading her to giggle.

* * *

Later, in the Tortuga's shell, Mina reflected about the day while writing a letter to Mother Nature.

"Hey, kid." Bite-Size said.

"Oh, hi." Mina said, finishing her letter.

"Writing a letter for Hermia?" The bat asked.

"Yup."

"In the end of all, you weren't useless at all. It was your brilliant plan that saved the Kratt bros and sent Donita away."

"Well...guess I'm not useless at all."

"Of course not." Bite-Size touched her cheek with his muzzle and flied back inside.

All the creatures of the forest observed while the Tortuga left the place.


End file.
